Recent optical/near-IR observations of GRBs

We present the results of optical/near-IR observations carried out in the period Dec 1998-Dec 1999 at Spanish, Indian and New Zealand observatories. Most of the searches proved to be unfruitful, in spite of the rapid follow-up observations, starting 3-24 hr after the events. This indicates that a significant fraction of the bursts occur in high density environments preventing optical and near-IR photons to be detected. In a couple of events, GRB 990123 and GRB 991208 the optical/near-IR afterglows were detected. .